Joe B. Hall: Remembering an elite coach

He only was a head coach for 13 years, but the numbers don't lie; he stacks up well against all of his peers. A guest post by Trent McBride

This post was guest-written by Trent McBride, a subscriber and fellow analytical mind, in honor and defense of Joe B. Hall. Enjoy!

This past weekend was certainly an emotional roller coaster for UK basketball fans. The anticipation of this year’s first big game at Rupp was met with the sad news of Joe B.Hall’s death, followed by a celebration of his life in the form of one of the most impressive UK performances in recent history.

There were plenty of poignant and warm remembrances of Hall’s life, from coaches and players, UK historians, and media. Calipari spent a good portion of his post-game press conference recalling their friendship, and Kyle Tucker wrote two great columns about the former coach. (Also check out Hall’s own autobiography, with a nod to my aunt, Marianne Walker, co-author).

But much of what was said and written focused on his unique place in UK history and his special love, as a Kentucky native, for the school. As a fan of a certain age, growing up just after Hall stepped down, I’m not sure I had truly appreciated what he accomplished, and I’m sure I didn’t think of him the same way as Rupp, Pitino, or Calipari (or even Tubby). I may have subconsciously had this image in my mind of a competent coach who was fortunate to ride the train of UK Basketball briefly to the pinnacle of the sport, bridging the gap between two true greats in Rupp and Pitino, more passenger than conductor.

Enter Billy Reed.

The responses on Twitter and Facebook have been pretty brutal; not-so-gentle reminders to refrain from raining on a good man’s funeral, comparisons of perceptions of Mr. Reed’s and Hall’s characters, and some other things better left un-printed.

To me, the post was in bad taste for all the above reasons, but it might give it too much credit to say that is all it was. “Nobody wants to debate it, right?” Well, I do, and I thank Mr. Reed, because it gave me a reason to go on a little ride on a snowy Sunday afternoon, diving into Hall’s statistical record to see how he stood up to his contemporaries. And the answer is: extremely well.  Propriety aside, failing to engage with the facts and hiding behind respect for the dead might leave the impression that Hall was a lesser coach than his peers. Hall’s innumerable boosters should not fear the facts because this just plainly isn’t so.

I tried to identify all the candidates that would qualify as a contemporary, wanting to compare Hall to coaches of the same age cohort who overlapped the years Hall was at UK (1972-1985).  By my count, there were eight: Lou Carnesecca (St. John’s), Denny Crum (Louisville), Bob Knight (Indiana), Lute Olson (Iowa and Arizona), Dean Smith (North Carolina), Eddie Sutton (Creighton and Arkansas), Jerry Tarkanian (UNLV), and John Thompson (Georgetown). Additionally, there were two older coaches that still overlapped Hall's tenure (and were successful during that time): Guy Lewis (Houston) and Ray Meyer (DePaul).

[There were two others that just missed the cut: Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), who was just a few years behind and whose success came after Hall’s resignation; and Al McGuire (Marquette), who started just a few years before (but who was at his pinnacle at the same time as Hall). This exercise also increased my appreciation of McGuire, whose career is remarkably similar to Hall’s: great in 13 years with a championship ring, followed by a loveable post-coaching “emeritus” career that somewhat overshadowed that greatness.]

First here is how these coaches stack up in the regular season:

He’s right in the middle in wins and winning percentage, and he’s near the top in SRS rating (a simple rating system used by the great website at College Basketball-Reference) and final AP Top 10 finishes, behind only Knight and Smith, while tied for most conference championships with Smith and Crum (Thompson, Meyer, and Tarkanian’s teams were independent for a significant part of this period).

Second, what about the NCAA tournament?:

That’s exceptional: the most Elite Eights, tied for most wins with Knight and Smith, and in second place, just one behind the leader in NCAA tournament appearances (Smith), Final Fours (Crum), and Championships (Knight), with the second highest winning percentage (Knight).

Hall stacks up better than I would have thought. If you make me pick which run I would prefer from ‘72-’85, I suppose I would go with Knight or Smith, not by much, but well ahead of everyone else, Crum included.

In fact, Hall’s run is eerily reminiscent of the (currently) 13-year stretch for John Caipari in every way, and nobody this side of the Blue Ridge Mountains would call Cal’s run anything but greatness. Of the many reasons that Cal and Hall were friends, I have to wonder if they found a bond over a shared sense of their accomplishments being underappreciated, by basketball historians if not their own fans.

One last thing: keen observers might notice that every coach mentioned above has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, with the notable exception of Joe B. Hall (he has been inducted in the College Basketball HOF, but this is a lesser honor). Now, I’m passing no judgment on this; I’m not a basketball historian. Endpoints in exercises like this can sometimes be arbitrary and play tricks on perception; immediately after Hall resigned, Crum and Knight added titles in successive years, with Smith and Boeheim not too long thereafter.

But Hall walked away voluntarily, and he left behind the building blocks of greatness (the successive team would fall in the Elite Eight as a #1 seed in 1986), though that would be demolished not long after under Sutton’s reign. There’s just no reason to believe, had he chosen to keep on, that Hall could not have kept pace with these other great coaches, and possibly surpass them.  

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So, Billy Reed was partially right, Joe B. Hall’s career was slightly inferior to that of Bob Knight’s in the same span, and you should throw in Dean Smith, too. Just to be clear, these are likely two of the four or five greatest coaches to ever roam the sidelines, depending on who you ask.  But it’s close. And Hall’s accomplishments at least equalled or likely bettered those of Denny Crum’s from ‘72-’85, and were clearly better than literally everyone else in his time. The idea that it’s not even debatable is silly. This is not revisionist history; this is demonstrable fact.

The whole point of this weekend’s bittersweet celebration was that Joe B. Hall’s life was more than his thirteen years as UK basketball coach. But, even if that was all there was, you could do a lot worse than have a tombstone read: “Here lies Joe Hall, who during his career was a hair’s breadth from being the single most accomplished college basketball coach in the country.”